Case studies

New Hampshire (USA)

Category: 2.5. Telephone consultations

New Hampshire (USA)

In New Hampshire between 1988 and 1990, follow-up calls initiated by doctors replaced face-to-face consultations in a primary care setting. Five hundred male veterans selected at random received three telephone consultations. Plus, the usual interval between face-to-face consultations was doubled. Over these two years:

• The telephone care patients used significantly fewer prescribed drugs and experienced fewer admissions, with shorter hospital stays, resulting in savings of $1,656 per patient.
• There was no significant difference in mortality between the two groups.